During the last week in September 2022, it was my pleasure to spend several days with friends and visiting wildlife at the National Butterfly Center in Mission Texas. I spent several restful days at this sanctuary enjoying the birds and butterflies. I’m no butterfly specialist. While it requires patients to photograph butterflies, much like it … Read more
Monday, I drove to Estero Llano Grande, one of the premiere birding destinations in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. I rode my bike over several miles of trails there, but I couldn’t find any birds that inspired me to break out my camera gear. Not to be deterred, I drove from my Brownsville camp at … Read more
Sunday’s Big Sit event at the National Butterfly Center was such fun. As part of the Great Texas Birding Classic put on each year by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, teams count bird species they can see or hear, while confined in a 50 foot diameter circle. The talents held by some folks on the … Read more
I first visited Estero Llano Grande State Park this year in January (2021-01-22). On that visit, I walked on my explorations, so I could only get to a few of its many trails and attractions. At 230 acres, it may not be the largest of the parks in the World Birding Center network, but there … Read more
I tried to visit the National Butterfly Center last week, but the big freeze and the power outage at the time mandated they close, so I had to turn around and try my luck elsewhere. Given this location’s excellent reputation for meeting birds and butterflies, and its proximity only two miles from my camp in … Read more
Another cold morning it was in south Texas this past Tuesday, but I was determined to get out and explore the region. The camp where I’m staying is but 1.5 miles from Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park, so I set my sights of getting acquainted with the grounds there. Monday started off at 22°F, … Read more
My time in Brownsville is winding down, so I wanted to visit a location that I enjoyed very much during my spring visit last year. Laguna Atascosa NWR was one of the few birding venues that remained open during the pandemic, and it saved me from missing out on meeting the birds I drove several … Read more
It was a foggy morning ten days ago when I visited Sabal Palm Sanctuary for the first time. It added an air of mystery to my introduction to this amazing location. Tucked into the serpentine curves of the Rio Grande at the southernmost boundary of Texas with Mexico, it is so far south it hides … Read more
Friday morning I launched out of my campsite on a mission to explore one of the crown jewels of birding in south Texas; Estero Llano Grande State Park, south of Weslaco. It was a little over an hour’s drive via the Military Road, which follows the Mexican border. I drove through a drizzling overcast sky, … Read more
